Serena shakes off rainy-day feeling

May 28, 2007|By Charles Bricker Staff Writer

PARIS — There was enough rain on opening day at Roland Garros to turn this second Grand Slam of the season into the Drench Open, but while fans were exasperated by a six-hour, 16-minute interruption of play, Serena Williams used the time to compose herself before roaring from behind for an ultimately impressive win.

This French Open is Williams' 30th Grand Slam and she's never lost a first-round match, but she couldn't have looked much worse than she did in dropping a set to 19-year-old Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, ranked 91st, as she slapped a series of set-ups wide, long or into the net.

When the players were rained off the Suzanne Lenglen court with Pironkova serving at 6-5, Williams not only had committed 22 unforced errors, but she was stumbling around, being chased from corner to corner by Pironkova's decisive backhands, and too often off-balance and looking like someone who had played only four clay-court matches before arriving in Paris.

All her sins were forgiven, however, when the match resumed. Williams, who hasn't looked this fit in three years, won nine straight and 12 of the last 13 games for a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 victory that marked the fourth time in four matches this season that she has come from behind in a three-setter to win, including the final at Key Biscayne.

"I was thinking there's no way I'm going home on Sunday. It's not even Monday. I can't lose on Sunday," joked Williams, a reference to the French Open's move, beginning in 2006, from a 14- to a 15-day Slam.

Whether Sunday or Monday, it had to have been one of the worst opening days in tournament history. By mid-afternoon, with the weather forecast offering no chance for play before 6 p.m., officials postponed 17 of the 24 scheduled matches until today.

Williams, seeded eighth, was joined in the second round by No. 1 Justine Henin, who defeated Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-3 to begin her quest for a third straight French Open title, and by No. 10 Dinara Safina and unseeded Tamira Paszak.

On the men's side, No. 22 Marat Safin and unseeded Potito Starace and Janko Tipsarevic won to make the second round.

Nine other seeded players, including No. 26 Venus Williams, were sent back to their hotels.

After several days of intense sunshine, Paris turned cool and then cold and rainy Sunday, making a mockery of the tournament's attempt to exploit a third weekend of play.

The weather slowed the courts and the light but steady drizzle put enough water on the clay that, even with the tarp on, the balls became heavier, fuzzier and more difficult to slam for winners.

Williams has had these slow starts after injury layoffs, but she's so athletic that it takes only sets, not matches, before she finds her groove. She was finally sliding into the ball by the third set against Pironkova, but things had begun turning around when she cracked a particularly lethal backhand to go up 2-1 in the second.

Finally, she began to string together big plays instead of big blunders. In the fifth game of the second set, she raced in to slash a swinging volley for a winner. In the next game there was the remarkable running backhand short angle that forced a Pironkova error. And on set point, a slice service winner that evened the match and let the Bulgarian know that Williams was once again playing top-10 ball.

Pironkova came into the match with only a 2-9 record, but she had the distinction of defeating Venus Williams in the first round of the 2006 Australian Open. She wasn't going to reprise that performance, however, in Paris against Venus' younger sister.

Williams committed 25 unforced errors in the opening set, 17 in the last two combined. She had only nine winners in the first set, 26 in the last two.

Because of injuries, it's the first time she has played the French Open since 2004, when she lost in the quarters to Jennifer Capriati.

The rains are not finished here this week. Some showers are forecast for today and Tuesday before Paris warms up again.